These poor flowers are condemned to die within the month.
Even though they can't get a pardon from Father Frost, maybe someone would like to give them immortality through art.
Shari

Hopefully i have saved one from "death row"

where's Steve when hes needed i bet he would save one :idea:

Palms

Maybe a little abstract for your taste, but just having some Droste fun tonight. :)

Maybe a little abstract for your taste, but just having some Droste fun tonight. :)

Not too abstract for me lkroll l like it, colours are great

Palms

Thanks for your responses. I am just beginning to get brave enough to try to paint with the brushes, so it is really interesting to me to see how the experts would paint a photo I like.
Palms, I love your interpretation, especially the border and soft colors. Would you mind sharing how you did the border?
Lkroll, I would have never thought of an abstract from the hybiscus. It looks like an aerial view of a new amusement park ride.
I am attaching my tries at painting the two pictures.

Just playing around a bit

Thank you sharynideas i like your paintings especially the hibuscus one,

To do the border effect

duplicate your image on the top layer Edit > transform > Scale

On the top pallette click the little link between the W & H ( maintains the aspect ratio ) enter a value in either the width or height, i think i used about85%

The rest is now optional by selecting the image in both layers one at a time i used Edit >stroke 10 in pink, ( on the bottom layer i clicked inside )

Again on the bottom layer i lightened the image or you could darken it
quite a few options on the bottom layer filters for example

top layer you could rotate using the transform tool again

Palms

Just playing around a bit


Nice bit of play Cassidy

Palms

It won't be long, that's for sure. Gave the stroke thing mentioned above a try and continued from there.

A little bit of everything. H/Sat, G. Blur, Artistic dry brush - lost track after awhile because I played with it so much.

I know what you all mean when you say you played with the pictures so much you lost track. I worked on that hybiscus so much that I could never reproduce it if I tried.
Palms- Thanks so much for the mini tutorial. I redid the hybiscus. I have Elements rather than photoshop. Some of the commands are quite a bit different. Apparently especially the edit commands. I figured out how to scale, but never did figure out "Edit >stroke 10 in pink". I realize there's quite a bit of difference in the capabilities of the two programs, and photoshop is definitely what the professional needs.
Anyway, I put a border on the hybiscus and darkened it with levels. I couldn't figure out how you and Dmrdm put the colored frames on the border, so I put bevels on both layers.
(When I got finished and posted this, I realized I do have a Stroke command under Edit. I had never used it. It's a great way to add a border. Sorry to have sounded so stupid.)
Dmrdm- The flowers probably have less than 2 weeks here in Western PA. But you'd never know it. Yesterday's high was 93 and overnight low was 73.
Cass-Your interpretation really made the Mandevilla's colors pop.

Thought I'd join in on the fun..... Thank you, Shari !

Hopefully I have saved one from "death row"

where's Steve when hes needed I bet he would save one :idea:

Palms

Well now it's only natural that you would think of me when you need help with flowers. As you well know, I wait every day for the next post so I can dig right in and do them justice. And I can see the poor things crying for me to save them. However I find that my highly valuable time allows me to only do this one.

Hope it meets with the poor blossom's approval.

Steve C.

Sharynideas glad you worked through the mini tut I wouldnt think you stupid we all have been there and some times still cant find things the hibiscus looks great, dont you feel great when you learn another new trick !
Yours also looks great Solitear I will have to find some time to so the hibuscus everyones done such a good job at it.

And hey Super Steve to the rescue again, funny thing is now, I dont think you will lose the flower thing every one has caught on with it :evil:

Palms

Started out using Unplugged's CopyStar filter, but then I made it seamless. The individual (and higher quality) tile is here (http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/1894/mandevillatilewt8.jpg). Attached is what can be done with it. :)

Thank you all for giving the flowers eternal life. I'm going to print them all out. When the snow flies, it'll remind me that better times are ahead.
Shari